On the Junbei armored cruiser, the captain of the ship, Dr. Shi Xulin, looked at the enemy cruiser formation in front of him and said: "It should be their Mace-class armored cruiser, this ship was still a cutting-edge warship even two or three years ago, but now, it is outdated!" ”

"There is no hardened armor, in order to ensure the armor thickness system, the tonnage can only be controlled by key protection, the speed is only about eighteen knots, and the main gun is still a half-rapid-fire gun with gravity reset, although it has been replaced with a 120-millimeter rapid-fire gun, but they have not yet developed a 150-millimeter rapid-fire gun!"

"Hmph, whether it's protection, firepower, or speed, our Crane-class armored cruisers can crush them!"

"This battle will be won!"

The adjutant next to him also said: "Yes, judging from the engagement of the cruiser fleet in front, although the 120 mm rapid-fire guns attached to the enemy fleet have also posed a certain threat to our avant-garde fleet, their protection is too poor, and the rapid-fire artillery fire of our avant-garde fleet has caused considerable casualties, and two enemy cruisers have been severely damaged!" ”

At this time, someone reported: "Report, Commander Ren has an order, all ships follow the flagship to turn 30 degrees, maintain a speed of 20 knots, and the whole army will assault!" ”

Doctor Shi Xulin nodded after hearing this, and passed on the relevant orders!

He himself took out his binoculars and looked at it: "Since the movement of the enemy's main fleet has been detected, then it is time for our main force to go to the formation, it seems that the commander intends to take advantage of the speed advantage and knock out their cruiser formation first!" ”

He was right, as Ren Zhongping's turning order was delivered, soon the four armored cruisers and two Xialin-class cruisers in the first squadron began to turn around, heading towards the northeast at high speed in a straight column, and the target was the high-speed formation of cruisers led by the two armored cruisers of the enemy fleet.

At 2:30 p.m., the lead armored cruiser Klan approached the enemy fleet, which was the target of their trip: a formation of enemy fleet cruisers led by two armored cruisers and followed by three first-class dome cruisers.

At 2:36 p.m., the armored cruiser Crane opened fire with its 200-millimeter rapid-fire guns at a distance of about 8,000 kilometers from the enemy's No. 1 ship, the Mace, but even multiple rounds of fire failed to get any hits because of the distance.

At this time, the enemy fleet began to turn sharply to the southeast, trying to evade the fire of the 1st detachment, and returned fire with 200 mm guns.

At the same time, the formation of the enemy's main battleships began to come in this direction at a maximum speed of about fifteen knots.

At this time, the capital ship formations of both sides have actually been exposed, and they have already appeared in the sight of the other side.

The battlefield was already transparent to both sides, but the Southwest Fleet of the Daheng Imperial Navy still relied on the advantage of knowing the enemy's capital ship formation in advance in the second squadron before, and maneuvered in advance, so that the first squadron went to the northeast and engaged the enemy cruiser formation first, and avoided the enemy's main battleship formation.

And it was this intelligence advantage in knowing the enemy's capital ship formation in advance, coupled with the general high speed advantage of the ships of the Southwest Fleet, that made the Southwest Fleet gain the upper hand in the early stage!

When the main formation of armored cruisers led by Ren Zhongping and the enemy's two armored cruisers and three first-class dome cruisers began to exchange fire, the enemy battleship formation was still slowly hurrying behind.

The most important thing is that the opponent's battleship formation is still slow, and I don't know when I want to rush over.

At this time, the defect of the slightly slow speed of the battleships of the Gafia Empire was exposed, and the battleship formation that they rushed to reinforce could only advance at a speed of fifteen knots, because the maximum speed of their four low-freeboard battleships was only fifteen knots, and the speed of the two new high-freeboard battleships was only sixteen knots.

This speed is actually not low for the warships built a few years ago, and the Great Heng Empire's own Endless Sea-class battleships are only more than fifteen knots.

However, in recent years, the technological innovation of the Navy has been too fast, and only a few years later, battleships are embarrassed to meet people without eighteen knots, and armored cruisers already need to soar to more than twenty knots.

But the two armored cruisers of the other side are still low-freeboard armored cruisers that were in service a few years ago, and low-freeboard battleships are not suitable for ocean-going operations, not to mention, and their speed is only eighteen knots.

When there was a huge gap in the speed of the two sides, Ren Zhongping's fleet also occupied a great maneuverability advantage!

At 2:47 p.m., the distance between the patrol formation led by Ren Zhongping and the opponent's cruiser formation had been shortened to 6,000 meters, and the main guns of both sides had already opened fire!

But at this time, it can be seen that the great advantage of the large-caliber rapid-fire guns of the Great Heng Empire is obvious!

The rapid-fire guns of the four Crane-class armored cruisers of 200 mm and 40 calibers fired at a rate of several rounds per minute, while the guns of the other side were equipped with 250 mm large-caliber naval guns, but the rate of fire was only about one round every two minutes.

The projection of the main artillery shells of both sides is not at all on the same level!

As a large number of 200 mm shells were continuously fired, although the hit rate was low, it still continued to hit the opponent's armor!

Although the thickness of the armor of the main part seems to be very thick, the coverage area of the main armor belt is very small, and most of its positions are basically unable to withstand the blow of 200 mm armor-piercing shells!

Not to mention two-hundred-millimeter shells, even the semi-armor-piercing shells of a hundred-and-fifty-millimeter rapid-fire gun can inflict effective damage on most positions of enemy ships.

The patrol formations of the two sides only engaged in battle for only 15 minutes, and when they were set on fire by a number of Daheng battleships, the Metz, the leader of the enemy fleet, had already been hit by more than 20 shells, of which five were 200-millimeter shells and more than 20 were 150-millimeter shells.

You must know that at most, the ship was attacked by at least five Daheng battleships, and at the same time it was attacked by more than ten 200-millimeter naval guns and 30 150-millimeter naval guns

These more than 20 shells almost smashed this armored cruiser, which had just been in service for only four years!

The surface of the battleship was full of craters, and three huge bullet holes were blown out, which was a masterpiece of 200 mm shells!

Although no shells penetrated below their waterline and caused water ingress, nor did they hit their ammunition depots and cause distance explosions, the dense fire almost swept away their superstructure!

As soon as the twin main guns in the bow of the ship were fired two rounds, the members of the opposing artillery crew on the open battery were hit by dense high-explosive shells and suffered heavy casualties, and then completely lost their combat effectiveness.

Due to the lack of effective protection of a large number of its secondary gun positions, under the attack of intensive fire, the members of each artillery crew suffered heavy losses, and also caused the ammunition on the secondary gun position to detonate, causing more serious secondary damage.

The bridge, which lacked effective protection, was even more shattered, and a large number of officers were killed and wounded.

At this time, although the ship was still floating on the sea and its speed was still maintained, it had actually completely lost most of its firepower, which in turn led to the loss of combat effectiveness!

On the other hand, Ren Zhongping's patrol formation was not hit by a single shot of the enemy's large-caliber naval guns, and although the enemy's 250-millimeter naval guns were powerful, the rate of fire in the battle was extremely slow, and more than ten minutes passed, and a few shells were fired, let alone hit.

Instead, they were hit by a large number of 120-mm rapid-fire guns, but these medium-caliber rapid-fire guns had little effect on the protection of the Crane-class armored cruisers.

Not to mention the 170 mm hardened armor in the main armor belt, turret, and conning tower, even the thickness of the hardened armor in other minor parts is generally designed to resist 150 mm rapid-fire guns.

The shells of a mere 120-millimeter rapid-fire gun really did not pose any real threat to the Klan-class armored cruisers.

Only four 150-mm secondary guns, deployed directly on the deck, suffered some losses after receiving a blow from 120-mm high-explosive shells.

However, the 150 mm secondary gun emplacement, protected by the enclosed armor of the thick upper gun gallery, did not show any damage.

On the other hand, the two second-class Vault cruisers of the Xia Lin class who followed behind suffered some damage to their hulls after being attacked by a lot of 120-mm rapid-fire guns, and the casualties were not small.

On the whole, the losses were not significant, at least not a single 150-mm secondary gun emplacement lost its combat effectiveness.

It took fifteen minutes to paralyze an armored cruiser of more than 9,000 tons, and there was almost no big loss on its own side, this is the battle presented by Ren Zhong's flat-armored patrol formation to the navies of various countries watching the battle!

This result almost amazed the naval officers of various countries who were watching the battle from the periphery, and they all found it incredible.

Although the rapid-fire guns of the Gafia Imperial Navy only have a 120-millimeter rapid-fire gun, and they have not been developed and equipped with a 150-millimeter rapid-fire gun, the rapid-fire guns of a 120-millimeter caliber are not so powerful that they can't even remove the paint on other people's armor.

On the other hand, the Gafiya Empire itself, a main force of more than 9,000 tons, actually completely lost its combat effectiveness in just ten minutes, looking at the potted craters of this patrol from a distance, almost everyone knows that the era of comprehensive protection with hardened armor has really come.

The previous mode of protection with a thick but narrow main armor belt on the armor belt was completely useless, and it could not stop the fierce fire of rapid-fire guns at all.

And when the officers watching the battle of the navies of various countries were amazed, the navy of the Gafia Empire was extremely frightened!